13
ISABELLA
Idrift off to sleep for a little while, and when I wake again, there’s a plate with a dry-looking piece of chicken on it, some white rice, and what looks like steamed vegetables. Food I would have turned my nose up at under other circumstances, but I’m so hungry that I make a beeline straight for it, stumbling out of bed to grab it and shovel it into my mouth. My stomach feels cramped, even more empty from being sick, and even though I know it can’t be wise to eat so fast, I can’t stop myself.
I find myself listening for footsteps, wondering if Javier is coming back, but I don’t hear anything.Maybe breaking me with solitary confinement is part of it,I think dryly, but if that’s his tactic, it won’t work. Being isolated away from him is a reward, not a punishment.
When the food is gone, I crawl back into bed. I still don’t have any clothes, and the room is cold. The blankets are heavy enough to keep me warm at least, and I huddle under them, willing sleep to come. I’m in so much pain, stiff from the belting Javier gave me, that I’m not sure if I can sleep.
I want something to feel good again. I want to feel less lonely.I can feel myself aching not just for Niall’s presence, but for the pleasure he always gave me. I want to feel his hands on me, hear him calling melassin that thick, rolling accent, his voice whispering what a good girl I am as I took everything he had to give me, everywhere. I want to feel his hands and his tongue and his cock, aching for the hot, hard press of his body against mine, the safety of it. The feeling that when we were together, the world disappeared, and nothing else mattered.
It feels like physical pain, an inner hurt to match the outer, and I feel like I’d do anything to salve it. Gingerly, I reach down between my thighs, touching the bruised flesh from where the belt hit me. Still, the stroke of my finger over my clit is enough to bring back the arousal from earlier, too.
I close my eyes tightly, imagining that it’s Niall, his fingers between my folds, his tongue moving over my clit in those long slow strokes that drove me wild with pleasure. I arch my back as I press upwards into my hand, remembering him pinning me to the door, getting down on his knees for me, licking me to my very first orgasm.
I don’t realize I’m moaning until the door opens, and I hear Javier’s voice snapping through the room like the crack of a whip.
“What do you think you’re doing, little one?”
I jerk my hand away from my thighs, face burning in the darkness, and I bite my lip. My heart is pounding, and I hope that he might be convinced he’s mistaken, even as I know I’m already caught.
“I asked you a question.” His voice is a low, threatening hiss, curling around me as he approaches the bed. “Answer me, or your punishment will be worse.”
“Trying to sleep,” I whisper in a small voice. It’s not entirely a lie. I’d hoped that some pleasure, any pleasure, might have taken the edge off of the pain and helped me get to sleep.
“Just that?” He’s standing over me now, looming, and I’m grateful for the blankets at least covering me.
Which means, of course, that his next action is to snatch them away, leaving me naked and shivering atop the sheets.
“No,” I whisper.
“Were you touching yourself? Pleasuring your newly shaved pussy?” His voice is thickening now, heating, and my pulse leaps into my throat, the fear that I might have crossed a line that would let him take things further rising up sharp and fast.
I don’t dare lie to him. “Yes.” The word is barely audible, hanging in the air between us.
“Show me.” He flicks on a light, and suddenly I’m bathed in it, my eyes clenching shut against it. “Spread yourself and show me, Isabella!”
The command comes so sharply that I know I don’t have a choice. I reach down, tears threatening all over again as I spread my pussy, letting him see the arousal glistening there.
“Naughty girl,” Javier growls. “Another lesson for you to learn then. Your pleasure is your husband’s, not yours. That pussy belongs to Diego Gonzalez, not to you, and he was very clear that you not be allowed to touch it. After all, you’d think of your lover while you rubbed that hard little clit, wouldn’t you? Not your husband. But don’t worry, little one,” he adds, almost crooning now, the sound of his voice grating over me. “I’ll make certain you learn your lesson tonight.”
Fear bursts over me in a cold wave, but Javier is already turning to leave the room, glancing over his shoulder at me. “Don’t worry, Isabella. I’ll be right back.”
Please, no.A dozen different horrible possibilities run through my mind, but when he comes back, all I can see is plastic in his hand and a bottle.
“Arms up, Isabella,” he orders. “Do it now and quickly, or I’ll whip those pretty breasts until they’re as welted as your thighs.”
I want to fight, but I’m already shaking. I don’t have it in me to take another beating, not as cold and in pain as I already am, my body caught between being halfway to a denied orgasm and shuddering with fear and bruised flesh. Slowly, I raise my hands over my head, aware of how my breasts move as I do, and Javier’s eyes on them.
“Beautiful,” he murmurs, brushing one finger over the soft flesh. “Even more beautiful with those nipples clamped, I think, and the skin reddened from my whip. But we’ll get there later, perhaps.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, trying not to cry, not to gasp with fear. Cold plastic surrounds my wrists, and I feel him yank them shut, zip-tying me to the headboard. For one brief moment, I think that’s it—that that’s all he’s going to do. Tie me up so I can’t touch myself, and leave me here like this. I don’t know how I’ll sleep, but it’s not nearly as bad as everything else he’s done to me today.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Javier picks up the bottle, squirting a clear liquid onto his fingers. The grin on his face is almost leering as he reaches out between my legs, pushing his fingers between my folds. The gel on them is cold at first, and I recoil from his touch, even as his fingers slide down my clit to my entrance, covering all of my pussy with the cold gel.
And then, after a second, it begins to heat up and tingle.